What would you do if your rent/mortgage was taken care of?

[NutellaEllaElla]

Lots of us work towards it but what do you do when you get there?

In our case, it lets me do a job I love rather than going back to the better paid job I wasn’t happy in.
My husband’s industry is pretty unpredictable too, so it’s helped cope with the threat of redundancy that pops up at least once every couple of years.

I'll be 69 by the time my mortgage is paid off 😫

If we continue to pay our mortgage without overpayment I will be 50 when my mortgage is paid off, DD1 will be 31 and hopefully self sufficient, DD2 will be 22 and should be finishing uni so I plan to go part time and take up some hobbies!

If I was mortgage free now it would be more holidays, home improvements, meals out, nice car... I like working full time and feel too young to mooch about the house whilst kids are at school my mortgage is nearly £1500 a month!

Boring but as we're renting I'd put a years rent towards a deposit.

I want to take the kids to Japan, then put the money into savings. My mortgage isn't massive (less than £500 a month) but I dont want to do my job until I am 70.

With no mortgage, I'd update some of the things on my house I've been meaning to do.

I'd definitely boost my pension too. Hoping to be mortgage free by the time I'm 50.

We paid off our mortgage after 25 years. It just means we were able to support our DD through university and then her masters as well as helping her out as she makes her way in the world. Now we are supporting our DS through further education…..

Cor these kids hoovering up the spoils of having repaid mortgages! Seems like a real hamster wheel.

Holidays, savings , buy stuff we want when we want, go out more, and more holidays.

Holy shit. I'm late forties and only just got my first mortgage. If it was taken care of I'd have the equivalent of £4000 in immediate disposable income! (My entire previous life that money has been spent on paying off student debts, paying rent and saving stupid amounts to make a deposit).

So... go on holiday every two months?! Make more charitable donations? Get a puppy and have a daily dog sitter? Set up a business? Buy art? Choices seems endless!

£4000 a month that is.

Definitely invest for mine and the family's future (Pension / ISA / save up for another property)

Our mortgage wasn’t huge by MN standards so it didn’t make a huge difference to our lives.

We could have paid it off years ago but the interest rate was so low, it didn’t make sense.

Help others? I would use my financial stability to help more charities and directly assist those in need. Just me?

Fuck the needless holidays and more crappy things, come on people.

To be fair many people are planning to help their children which counts doesn't it?

@NutellaEllaElla no not really. Privileged kids getting hand outs isn’t charity work.

Work part time. But keep working. Because I want to be able to give my kids a leg up. And also because my father is currently paying many thousands a month for full time nursing care and if I get to that point I want to be able to afford somewhere I choose.

Realised my pension was shit 🙁 having not paid it any attention due to working towards the goal of paying off the mortgage with any spare cash.
So the happy days of spending all the extra money I thought I was going to have were dashed
So adding more to the pension & it is not going to improve massively
Was a bit depressing, the thought of a retirement on the money I have now keeps me awake at night. I just cant save enough to make for a decent retirement.

[quote LittleLottieChaos]@NutellaEllaElla no not really. Privileged kids getting hand outs isn’t charity work.[/quote]
I think you're making assumptions about people without much information.

We are planning a month in Spain, and at least three city breaks a year.
DH retires next July, he is all ready on final salary which we are saving, his state will then kick in and we will be on exactly the same as we are on now but without the savings, we have in addition to the final salary a pot of around £200,000 (which will be taxed after the first 25% tax free) savings of about £50k and if my mother dies without needing nursing care, then my inheritance will be somewhere in the region of £150k.

We have told DS (20) that we will match him £ for £ to help him save for a mortgage, and we will probably top it up, but as he is more interested in AF1s and clothes, I think our money is safe for quite a while.

How did we arrive at this point ? Some luck, some judgment, and a willingness to live on very little for a good ten years.

DH's company an a very generous (IMO) pension scheme and we did 10% and they did 12% we ploughed every rise for the last fifteen years straight back into the pension scheme.

We haven't had a mortgage for a few years , and I can't remember now what it was like to have one. There doesn't seem to have been a major shift in anything we do either, although we do have a few more holidays . We are both self employed so the extra holidays is possibly the bonus - not having to worry that we aren't earning for that time spent away.

When our mortgage is gone we have DD in college (ass7ming all goes well) so I think the money will be redirected that way.

Otherwise, adding to the pension pot and more short breaks.

Start using my ISA allowance every year, pay more into pensions and the rest in Premium Bonds with the long term goal (five years to go now) of early retirement.

We paid ours off a while ago and are enjoying ourselves spending the extra money on ourselves, our adult children and grandchildren.

@LittleLottieChaos

Help others? I would use my financial stability to help more charities and directly assist those in need. Just me?

Fuck the needless holidays and more crappy things, come on people.

Yeah, probably just you.

I need to save more towards retirement so that my children don’t have to worry about me.

Then I’d like to make sure that they have the advantages I can provide them.

Charity begins at home and all that.

I mean, I probably would give more to charity alongside the extra holidays - extra disposable income means you can dispose of it on a variety of stuff.

But first and foremost I would prioritise my own situation.